tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30710387.post8760639143910202806..comments2024-03-17T19:10:13.841-07:00Comments on A Closer Look: Jody Paterson: Anti-sex work revamp is just so wrongJody Patersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18038299584414910712noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30710387.post-57634261430976823692014-06-29T01:54:57.682-07:002014-06-29T01:54:57.682-07:00Hypocrisy, prejudice and ignorant narrow mindednes...Hypocrisy, prejudice and ignorant narrow mindedness have long shaped laws related to human sexuality. Rather than just expressing empathy for sex workers, we ought to accept that sexual behaviour is a natural human behaviour that might involve consenting adults in long-term monogamy, in near anonymous relationships of short-term convenience and various styles between.<br /><br />A few of Canada's current ruling politicians would have been comfortable in Georgian or Victorian England. Despite its ubiquity, governing classes believed the sex trade was a great social evil. One significant writer declared it rooted in ”the year 1802, when immorality had spread more or less all over Europe, owing to the demoralizing effects of the French Revolution.” This explanation was politically convenient even if it ignored evidence that prostitution had persisted throughout time.<br /><br />The Economist's review of Dan Cruikshank's book, ‘The Secret History of Georgian London: How the Wages of Sin Shaped the Capital,’ says,<br /><br />"As many as one in five young women were prostitutes in 18th-century London. The Covent Garden that tourists frequent today was the centre of a vast sex trade...<br /><br />"Prejudice barred women from all but menial jobs. Prostitution at least offered financial independence...<br /><br />"The sex trade transformed Georgian London. Rich brothel-keepers fed a construction boom that spawned thousands of elegant villas in Soho and Marylebone to house up-market courtesans..."<br /><br />Of course, the trade also took more respectable forms than the activities within London's brothels. The East India Company transported "superfluous women" from England to India to partner with unmarried officers of the company. ‘The Fishing Fleet’ by Anne de Courcy notes that females of that day might be taught, "If you are unfortunate enough to be born clever, for heaven's sake, be clever enough to hide it."<br /><br />I think there are elements of this thinking among Ottawa's Conservatives. For example, they are satisfied with a federally appointed bench that is, according to a Globe Editorial, "overwhelmingly, a white, male bastion." <br /><br />Peter McKay seems to think women should stay home to care for husbands and babies. He denies saying those words but the fact is that of 13 recent judicial appointments, 12 of them were men. Of the 200 or so judges appointed by Harper's Government, all but a few were white.<br /><br />Given a preference for what they call “social conservatism” and their unquestioning support of unrestrained development and disregard for warnings of science, or cautions of high court decisions, we should not be surprised that they intend to blunder on, ignoring social experts, and criminalize everyone involved with sex trades. The surprise would have been a choice to do something different.Norm Farrellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06762889793990336381noreply@blogger.com